Tag: singapore

The Push for Bug-Based Diets Continues

Mealworm meatballs, anyone? Or how about a salad with a side of crickets? With the recent changes transpiring in the food industry, it’s highly possible that these will be the food choices you’ll see on restaurant menus in the future.

In Singapore, the movement toward a more insect-inclusive diet is progressing rapidly. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) recently approved the import of insect and insect products for human consumption, set to take effect immediately.1

SFA Approves 16 Insects for Human Consumption

Reports about Singapore planning to add more edible insects and insect products to their food supply actually made news in the last quarter of 2022. It was estimated that by the end of 2023, the SFA would give the green light for 16 types of insects to be approved for human consumption or to be used in animal feed.2

However, the approval was pushed back; it was only on July 8, 2024, when the agency finally gave the go-signal for these insects to be used as food. According to the SFA’s press release:3

“As the insect industry is nascent and insects are a new food item here, [the] SFA has developed the insect regulatory framework, which puts in place guidelines for insects to be approved as food.

With immediate effect, [the] SFA will allow the import of insects and insect products belonging to species that have been assessed to be of low regulatory concern.”

The 16 insect species included in the SFA’s list have different stages of growth — there are adult house crickets (Acheta domesticus) and grasshoppers (Oxya japonica), Superworm beetle mealworms (Zophobas atratus/Zophobas morio) and Whitegrub larvae (Protaetia brevitarsis), and Silk moth pupa and silkworm larvae (Bombyx mori).4

Various insect-containing products are also allowed. “Among the insect products that Singaporean authorities have said can be imported are: insect oil, uncooked pasta with insects as an added ingredient, chocolate and other confectionery containing no more than 20% insect, salted, brined, smoked and dried bee larva, marinated beetle grub, and silkworm pupa,” The Guardian reports.5

Local restaurants are gearing to accommodate these novel products, making notable changes to their menus to attract “more daring” customers. For example, the restaurant House of Seafood is planning a menu with at least 30 insect-infused dishes, which include silkworm- and crispy cricket-garnished sushi and salted egg crab with silkworms.6

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Singapore Compensates Hundreds Injured or Killed by COVID Shots

The government of Singapore has paid out nearly $1.9 million in financial assistance to 413 people who have suffered serious adverse reactions or died after getting a COVID-19 shot as of Dec. 31, 2022. The money was paid out under the country’s Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Program (VIFAP), according to Singapore’s Ministry of Health.1 2

Of those individuals who received compensation, the individual or families of three were awarded a “Tier 1” payout of $225,000 each because they either died or were permanently disabled following COVID vaccination. Among the vaccine injured is a 16-year-old boy who suffered a heart attack and collapsed after a weightlifting session in a gym six days after getting a first dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID biologic on June 27, 2021. The teenager was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) and underwent inpatient rehabilitation.1 3 4 5

According to a report by The Straits Times in August 2021, the teenager was diagnosed with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and the Ministry of Health said that the condition was “likely a serious adverse event caused by the vaccine which may have been aggravated by the youth’s strenuous lifting of weights and high consumption of caffeine through energy drinks and supplements.”3 4

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